Detective Shot In Robbery Returns To Job

CASSELBERRY — Seven weeks after he was shot during a robbery, Casselberry police Detective S. Lynn Cambre is back at work -- restricted to light duty while waiting for nerve damage to heal.

Cambre, 37, returned to work Monday and said he felt ''pretty good,'' except that his right leg doesn't respond to mental commands as quickly as it did before the shooting.

The four-year police veteran said his neurosurgeon has told him the nerve damage, which resulted when an assailant's bullet lodged less than a quarter- inch from his spinal cord, should heal in time.

Cambre was shot once in the right side of the chest and was grazed just above the left armpit with bullets from a .25-caliber pistol Aug. 13 while trying to apprehend a man suspected of robbing a Casselberry catalog showroom of $624.

John D. Dirgins, 24, remains in the Seminole County jail charged with two counts of attempted murder, armed robbery and attempted escape. He has pleaded innocent and is scheduled for trial during the week of Oct. 28.